A variety of products are fabricated from tubing, especially from hollow, cylindrical, metal tubing. Such products include television stands, infant seats, serving carts, display units, etc. Tube connectors have been developed for rigidly joining tube sections in such products.
The handling and freight costs associated with the marketing of a tubular product can be reduced by shipping a smaller package of unassembled tube sections and other components of the product to the point of purchase. The product can then be subsequently assembled at the point of purchase, such as at a retail store, or at the point of use by the purchaser. In such situations, it would be desirable to provide an improved tube connector which could be readily and relatively easily installed with common, conventional tools by a lay person who is not technically inclined or experienced in the assembly of tubular products.
One type of widely used tubing is fabricated in a cylindrical form from sheet metal and has an internal, longitudinal seam of overlapping, folded, sheet metal. While conventional connectors in use today can be used with such internal seam tubing, such conventional connectors do not accommodate such tubing in a manner that permits a tube section to be rotated about its longitudinal axis to a selected orientation of the seam. This can be disadvantageous when additional components are mounted to the seamed tube section, especially when such components must be mounted to the tube section so as to avoid interference with the tube section seam.
For example, a caster or wheel may be mounted to a tube section with suitable fastener extending through holes formed in the tube section. Typically, the holes for receiving the caster mounting fastener are not formed through the tube section seam which usually comprises two or more overlapping layers of material. Rather, the holes for accommodating the caster fastener are usually formed in the tube section about 90.degree. from the seam. Thus, the design of the product, and subsequent assembly of the tube sections with conventional tube connectors, must accommodate the seam in a manner such that the casters mounted on that tube section will be in the proper orientation to engage the floor. Conventional tube connectors that are specifically designed to accommodate the seam can accommodate the seam in only one position relative to the connected tube sections. This necessarily means that the tube sections cannot be adjusted with respect to the orientation of the seam, and therefore, the position of the caster mounted to one of the tube sections cannot be adjusted either.
It would be desirable to provide an improved tube connector which would permit adjustment of one of the tube sections to any selected rotational orientation. It would be beneficial if such an improved connector could accommodate the internal seam of a tube section and permit that tube section to be rotated to any desired position as may be necessary to properly orient other structures, such as casters, that are mounted to the tube section.